Smith helps Messalonskee beat Bangor Clark lifts Nokomis by Lawrence

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BANGOR – In three words, Messalonskee High School senior Izzy Smith described what the Eastern Maine Class A Basketball Tournament is all about.

“That was fun,” a jubilant Smith told her father Saturday afternoon after the sixth-seeded Eagles from Oakland knocked off No. 3 Bangor 36-34 in their quarterfinal matchup at the Bangor Auditorium.

Smith scored eight of her 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a clutch six-footer from the baseline with eight-tenths of a second remaining, to lift coach John Donato’s team into Thursday’s 8:40 p.m. semifinal.

Messalonskee (12-8) faces No. 2 Nokomis of Newport (19-0), which beat No. 7 Lawrence of Fairfield 48-30 later Saturday.

In the afternoon contest, the Eagles patiently executed in key situations to stun the Rams.

“To win at Bangor is just awesome, especially like that,” said Smith, the Eagles’ lone senior, who missed the last six games of the regular season with mononucleosis.

“Since I’ve been at Messalonskee, we’ve been in the tournament four out of five years, but we never had a more emotional win than this one here,” Donato said.

Messalonskee, which spotted Bangor (16-3) a 10-0 lead, worked patiently against the Rams’ zones. Amy McMullen’s outside shooting in the third quarter helped open things up inside for Smith.

Trailing 32-30, Smith sandwiched an offensive rebound basket and a baseline layup around a Bangor miss to give the Eagles a 34-32 lead with 40.8 seconds to play.

The Rams’ Alison Smith tied it with two foul shots at the 40.2 mark. Messalonskee called a timeout with 9.2 seconds left to set up the winning play.

Smith hit the shot, with two Bangor defenders in her face, as time expired.

“I just pass it to the corner and then cut down [to the baseline] and my sister’s at the top of the key, so they pretty much have to choose between me and Laura,” Smith said. “I just got the turnaround jump shot.”

McMullen paced the Eagles with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Izzy Smith contributed 12 rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots.

Alison Smith led Bangor with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three steals, but the Rams shot a dismal 23 percent from the field. Melissa Achorn added eight points.

Bangor never established a good offensive rhythm against Messalonskee’s assortment of “junk” defenses, including triangle-and-two and man with a floater.

In the late game, Nokomis center Danielle Clark proved almost impossible for Lawrence to stop. The 6-foot sophomore poured in a game-high 31 points, including a 13-for-16 effort from the foul line, while singlehandedly outscoring the battling Bulldogs.

Clark scored the first 13 points as coach Earl Anderson’s Warriors pulled out to an early 11-1 lead. Lawrence hung around until early in the third, when Clark scored eight points during a 10-2 run that pushed Nokomis’ lead to 35-17.

The Bulldogs, unwilling to concede the outside shot, did slow down the Warriors’ with their perimeter man-to-man defense. But they couldn’t contain Clark.

Clark, who also grabbed six rebounds, has developed into Nokomis’ workhorse.

“Clark, to be honest with you, was our most talented player last year, but she just wasn’t ready mentally to be the go-to player as a freshman,” Anderson said.

“[Now] she has go-to mentality. She wants the ball,” he continued. “That’s something you can never teach and when you have a really talented player have that mentality, that’s been one of the big differences between this year and last year.”

Lindsey Welch netted 10 points, eight on free throws, for Nokomis, which posted a 23-4 edge from the foul line. Laura Pelkey added six point and six rebounds.

Erica Nickerson’s 13 points and 14 rebounds led Lawrence, which outrebounded Nokomis 36-26.

The Warriors remained patient in the fourth quarter, milking their 13-point lead while going 9-for-12 from the foul line.

Eagles 36, Rams 34

Messalonskee girls (12-8) Bangor (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

LaBelle 2 11 1 2 7 Achorn 3 7 2 8

E. Smith 5 11 0 1 10 Miller 1 4 4

Pelletier 1 5 0 2 2 Curtis 1 13 3

Colby 1 3 0 0 3 Smith 4 13 6 14

McMullen 7 14 0 0 14 Frazier 2 5 5

McCarthy 0 2 0 0 0 Tower 0 1 0

L. Smith 0 1 0 0 0 Magee 0 5 0

Pullen 0 0 0 0 0 Warner 0 1 0 0

Totals 16 47 1 5 36 Totals 11 49 11 16 34

Messalonskee 0 12 23 36

Bangor 10 19 27 34

3-pt. goals: Messalonskee (3-12): LaBelle 2-7, Colby 1-3, McMullen 0-2; Bangor (1-11): Tower 0-1, Achorn 0-1, Frazier 1-1, Curtis 0-4, Smith 0-1, Magee 0-3

Warriors 48, Bulldogs 30

Lawrence girls (10-10) Nokomis (19-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Miller 1 3 0 0 2 Welch 1 6 8 10

A. Marshall 1 7 0 0 2 Pelkey 2 8 6

L. Marshall 0 2 0 0 0 Murray 0 4 0

Dubay 3 6 1 2 7 Lowe 0 1 1 1

Nickerson 5 11 3 3 13 Clark 9 15 13 16 31

Boucher 0 2 0 0 0 Palmer 0 1 0 0

Nadeau 0 1 0 0 0 Snow 0 0 0 0

Noyes 2 9 0 1 4 Burnett 0 0 0 0

Gurney 0 0 0 0 0 Paradis 0 0 0 0

Morrell 0 0 0 0 0

Dostie 1 3 0 2 2

Rogers 0 5 0 0 0

Totals 13 44 4 8 30 Totals 12 35 24 28 48

Lawrence 3 13 23 30

Nokomis 11 25 39 48

3-pt. goals ? Lawrence (0-9): Boucher 0-1, A. Marshall 0-5, L. Marshall 0-2, Nickerson 0-1; Nokomis (0-4): Welch 0-1, Pelkey 0-3